I have to believe that drinking a few beers actually increases your publication record, and that it looks something like a right-skewed bell curve. My own experience in science, some of the most stimulating, rewarding and ultimately fruitful conversations about science were over a beer.
Without a beer in hand once in a while, the grant writing process alone, much less publishing, would consume you. I think it's important to realize that drinking beer in a manner represents socializing, also.
My brother was down at Fort Meade working for *cough cough cough* last summer, so when we went down to visit we got a tour of the museum. Really cool stuff down there, it's worth a few hours of your day if you're in the area.
With the stuff they tell you there now, about the 60s and 70s, it's almost unfathomable what they DON'T tell us about what's going on now.
Hate to be a skeptic, but wake me when they publish in a journal that can be peer reviewed by the English-speaking world. Doklady Biochemistry and Biophysics? My subscription must have lapsed.
Thousands of compounds look like promising anti-cancer agents in cancer cell culture models. They haven't done any testing in normal cell culture or in any animals. It would be awesome if this worked, but it won't do anyone any good if it induces apoptosis in normal cells.
...isn't necessarily a representation of the number of actual protein products that a genome produces. Part of what makes humans so complex is the number of genes that produce multiple proteins. It isn't unique to humans, but is especially prevalent.
Beadle and Tatum's original hypothesis that "One gene encodes one enzyme" no longer holds true. Mechanisms such as alternative splicing and epigenomic effects (gene activation and silencing) can cause one gene to produce many isoforms, each which may be active differently between tissue types, and each which may have entirely different functions. Our 27,000 genes are quite possibly far more complex than another species 27,000.
I never got into WoW because I'm cheap, but I got into Guild Wars... and I've passed on buying at least 3 games that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm a college student, and my gaming time availability is rationed carefully. I can only imagine that it's worse for everyone paying the monthly fee for WoW.
The original paper wasn't just a foundation for the discovery of thousands of beforehand unknown olfactory receptors, it was a founding paper in the searching of multi-gene families.
Here comes some science: it was accepted/assumed that all these receptors were transmembrane g-protein coupled receptors. Without getting into that, they all span the cell membrane with 7 hydrophobic transmembrane domains. These are all well conserved among the receptors, and a couple of them are VERY conserved. They designed a whole bunch of PCR primers based on these regions of similarity and mixed pairs of them together to see what happened.
One pair light up a genome PCR like mad. It was very very clear that a whole gene family existed that shared homology to the very few known odorant receptors.
So while it is true that you might not think that smell is a huge deal (the mechanics are rather mind-boggling, and scienctists don't like not understanding things), they have paved the way for that as well as provided a hugely referenced technique for scanning genomes for multi-gene families. That in itself is worthy of at least a nomination.
This is no big deal at all. Like none of us have ever strapped a model rocket engine and a disposable camera to a frog before. Well... maybe that was just me...
This technology can be and is used for more than just fingerprints. The article says that this technology isn't new - the Canadian just came up with a better way of doing it. As far as contamination, other cellular residue is easily spun out, you buy kits for that, that part is fast and cheap. The main thing I would be worried about is the purity of the sample as far as number of sources of DNA. Lots of people touch alot of the same things.
I dunno about anyone else, but the first real FPS I played on a PC was Quake. The music made it seem like one of those freaks with a chainsaw and grenade launcher was right behind you. The view actually gave some of my friends motion sickness while I played too. Freaky ass game when I was younger.
I don't know if the same can be done for stem cells, but human fibroblast cell lines are made 'immortal' by knocking out the rb gene, I believe. The become pseudo-cancer cells, and proliferate as long as you need them to, minus the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. They're really handy to use as a control in squamous cell carcinoma research. Anyone have any idea if something similar could be done in stem cells? Or would that compromise other cell functions too much?
Not trying to sound cynical or pessimistic, but don't hold your breath waiting for a treatment that would actually treat 70% of all cancers. The causes (viruses, mutation, etc.) and characteristics of cancers (specific gene over/under expression) vary far too much for a 'cure all' in the near future, if ever. Working at the University of Michigan, I'm working with a very promising chemo drug for head and neck cancers, and only about 70 percent of head and neck cancers are responsive to this new drug, one of the most promising we've ever seen. Treatments will not really be universal, besides traditional 'kill em all' type chemos that just damage DNA wherever the drug is delivered.
One possible explantion for this rare occurance, one that I can see, anyway - Horses have 64 chromosomes in their normal diploid state, with haploid gametes having 32. Donkeys have 62 chromosomes in normal diploid state, with haploid gametes having 31. This gives a mule 63 chromosomes. If one gamete had experienced non-disjunction during meiosis (that is, one pair of homologues did not split correctly, giving one daughter cell 2 copies of a chromosome, and one none), a mule could have 62 or 64 chromosomes (depending on which gamete it received). This is not a very rare occurance, Down Syndrome or Kleinfelter's Syndromes in humans (trisomy 21 and XXY respectively). While most cases of non-disjunction produce abnormal offspring, in humans, for example, an XXX female is completely normal, except for a usually smaller stature. A case like this, where the offspring IS normal, is relatively rare, and a similar situation could be occuring in these fertile mules.
Alright, so now plates will explode when they go from hot to cold instead, and fillings will crack when you eat ice cream instead of drinking coffee. Does zirconium tungstate also expand/contract LESS during a temperature change? The article on Yahoo failed to mention it's response to decrease in temperature.
Also - a VERY common of use of heat-shrinking material - heat-shrink tubing, its used in electrical work very frequently. Some of that stuff shrinks to a quarter of its original diameter or less.
While it is correct that in today's aging population, the majority of cancers effect the elderly that did not exist over the course of evolution, cancer still affects the young. It makes more sense for the body to develop defense mechanisms guarding heavily against rapid, unchecked division of cells (apoptitic triggering proteins and the like), since you can still live and reproduce without a limb. Regeneration would also tax the body's resouces like little else could - liver regeneration and such are one thing, but the reformation of bone and tissue, including neural cells, would be extremely difficult for an adult. A child has the ability to sit and heal, and thusly can regenerate small damages. Basically, it just makes more sense physiologically to guard against cancer than the loss of a limb.
Judging by the size of the current micro fuel cell prototype and depending on how much smaller they can get, this power source may at least temporarily reverse the trend of ever shrinking phones that are becoming so small that I am rather afraid to use some of them.
The major thing I would personally be worried about - one nice thing for all those environmentalists about rechargable batteries is that you rarely need a new one, hence rarely throwing them out. Even when these cells last 10 times as long, how disposable are they?
I myself am Catholic and pro-life, but I am also a very strong proponent of stem cell research. Though the harvesting of cells from embryos does stop a life from occuring, it has not actually developed into life - it exsists as rapidly dividing cells. There is far too much protential for stem cells to ignore it based on the religous fanatic. Cheers to California, and I hope that Michigan isn't too far behind their example.
Asides from more traditional creationists (the ones who believe the 6000 year old earth theorem) are referred to more as fundamentalists. However, I'm not sure of the stance of protestant faiths, but the Vatican declared that it is acceptable for a Catholic to believe in the Big Bang Theory, as long as they accept that the Hand of God was behind it - a theory called 'Intelligent Design.' So it is entirely possible to be a creationist without being a 'luddite who attends church.'
This is slightly off topic, but there's another great way for high school seniors to get involved in robotics. The program is called F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). It is an international competition made of over 700 teams at the last count I saw that build a robot - based on the rules of that years game. Student interact and work daily with mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers. I myself worked with engineers from Ford Motor Company, Visteon, and FANUC Robotics. It's an excellent opportunity. Go to www.usfirst.org, and find a high school near you - they can get you into their team, or some may help you start a team at your school. And there are a relativly infinite number of slots.
Again, I know this is a little off topic, but it provides alot more of an opportunity than 60 highly demanded slots at NASA.
Slashdot Mirror
I have to believe that drinking a few beers actually increases your publication record, and that it looks something like a right-skewed bell curve. My own experience in science, some of the most stimulating, rewarding and ultimately fruitful conversations about science were over a beer.
Without a beer in hand once in a while, the grant writing process alone, much less publishing, would consume you. I think it's important to realize that drinking beer in a manner represents socializing, also.
My brother was down at Fort Meade working for *cough cough cough* last summer, so when we went down to visit we got a tour of the museum. Really cool stuff down there, it's worth a few hours of your day if you're in the area.
With the stuff they tell you there now, about the 60s and 70s, it's almost unfathomable what they DON'T tell us about what's going on now.
Hate to be a skeptic, but wake me when they publish in a journal that can be peer reviewed by the English-speaking world. Doklady Biochemistry and Biophysics? My subscription must have lapsed.
Thousands of compounds look like promising anti-cancer agents in cancer cell culture models. They haven't done any testing in normal cell culture or in any animals. It would be awesome if this worked, but it won't do anyone any good if it induces apoptosis in normal cells.
...isn't necessarily a representation of the number of actual protein products that a genome produces. Part of what makes humans so complex is the number of genes that produce multiple proteins. It isn't unique to humans, but is especially prevalent.
Beadle and Tatum's original hypothesis that "One gene encodes one enzyme" no longer holds true. Mechanisms such as alternative splicing and epigenomic effects (gene activation and silencing) can cause one gene to produce many isoforms, each which may be active differently between tissue types, and each which may have entirely different functions. Our 27,000 genes are quite possibly far more complex than another species 27,000.
GO BLUE!
I never got into WoW because I'm cheap, but I got into Guild Wars... and I've passed on buying at least 3 games that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm a college student, and my gaming time availability is rationed carefully. I can only imagine that it's worse for everyone paying the monthly fee for WoW.
Think about THAT.
Here comes some science: it was accepted/assumed that all these receptors were transmembrane g-protein coupled receptors. Without getting into that, they all span the cell membrane with 7 hydrophobic transmembrane domains. These are all well conserved among the receptors, and a couple of them are VERY conserved. They designed a whole bunch of PCR primers based on these regions of similarity and mixed pairs of them together to see what happened.
One pair light up a genome PCR like mad. It was very very clear that a whole gene family existed that shared homology to the very few known odorant receptors.
So while it is true that you might not think that smell is a huge deal (the mechanics are rather mind-boggling, and scienctists don't like not understanding things), they have paved the way for that as well as provided a hugely referenced technique for scanning genomes for multi-gene families. That in itself is worthy of at least a nomination.
This is no big deal at all. Like none of us have ever strapped a model rocket engine and a disposable camera to a frog before. Well... maybe that was just me...
Fingerprints can be smudged - DNA can't.
This technology can be and is used for more than just fingerprints. The article says that this technology isn't new - the Canadian just came up with a better way of doing it. As far as contamination, other cellular residue is easily spun out, you buy kits for that, that part is fast and cheap. The main thing I would be worried about is the purity of the sample as far as number of sources of DNA. Lots of people touch alot of the same things.
I dunno about anyone else, but the first real FPS I played on a PC was Quake. The music made it seem like one of those freaks with a chainsaw and grenade launcher was right behind you. The view actually gave some of my friends motion sickness while I played too. Freaky ass game when I was younger.
I don't know if the same can be done for stem cells, but human fibroblast cell lines are made 'immortal' by knocking out the rb gene, I believe. The become pseudo-cancer cells, and proliferate as long as you need them to, minus the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. They're really handy to use as a control in squamous cell carcinoma research. Anyone have any idea if something similar could be done in stem cells? Or would that compromise other cell functions too much?
Not trying to sound cynical or pessimistic, but don't hold your breath waiting for a treatment that would actually treat 70% of all cancers. The causes (viruses, mutation, etc.) and characteristics of cancers (specific gene over/under expression) vary far too much for a 'cure all' in the near future, if ever. Working at the University of Michigan, I'm working with a very promising chemo drug for head and neck cancers, and only about 70 percent of head and neck cancers are responsive to this new drug, one of the most promising we've ever seen. Treatments will not really be universal, besides traditional 'kill em all' type chemos that just damage DNA wherever the drug is delivered.
One possible explantion for this rare occurance, one that I can see, anyway - Horses have 64 chromosomes in their normal diploid state, with haploid gametes having 32. Donkeys have 62 chromosomes in normal diploid state, with haploid gametes having 31. This gives a mule 63 chromosomes. If one gamete had experienced non-disjunction during meiosis (that is, one pair of homologues did not split correctly, giving one daughter cell 2 copies of a chromosome, and one none), a mule could have 62 or 64 chromosomes (depending on which gamete it received). This is not a very rare occurance, Down Syndrome or Kleinfelter's Syndromes in humans (trisomy 21 and XXY respectively). While most cases of non-disjunction produce abnormal offspring, in humans, for example, an XXX female is completely normal, except for a usually smaller stature. A case like this, where the offspring IS normal, is relatively rare, and a similar situation could be occuring in these fertile mules.
Alright, so now plates will explode when they go from hot to cold instead, and fillings will crack when you eat ice cream instead of drinking coffee. Does zirconium tungstate also expand/contract LESS during a temperature change? The article on Yahoo failed to mention it's response to decrease in temperature. Also - a VERY common of use of heat-shrinking material - heat-shrink tubing, its used in electrical work very frequently. Some of that stuff shrinks to a quarter of its original diameter or less.
While it is correct that in today's aging population, the majority of cancers effect the elderly that did not exist over the course of evolution, cancer still affects the young. It makes more sense for the body to develop defense mechanisms guarding heavily against rapid, unchecked division of cells (apoptitic triggering proteins and the like), since you can still live and reproduce without a limb. Regeneration would also tax the body's resouces like little else could - liver regeneration and such are one thing, but the reformation of bone and tissue, including neural cells, would be extremely difficult for an adult. A child has the ability to sit and heal, and thusly can regenerate small damages. Basically, it just makes more sense physiologically to guard against cancer than the loss of a limb.
Is there a best time of night to look for them? I have never seen them either, and have always wanted to.
Judging by the size of the current micro fuel cell prototype and depending on how much smaller they can get, this power source may at least temporarily reverse the trend of ever shrinking phones that are becoming so small that I am rather afraid to use some of them. The major thing I would personally be worried about - one nice thing for all those environmentalists about rechargable batteries is that you rarely need a new one, hence rarely throwing them out. Even when these cells last 10 times as long, how disposable are they?
I myself am Catholic and pro-life, but I am also a very strong proponent of stem cell research. Though the harvesting of cells from embryos does stop a life from occuring, it has not actually developed into life - it exsists as rapidly dividing cells. There is far too much protential for stem cells to ignore it based on the religous fanatic. Cheers to California, and I hope that Michigan isn't too far behind their example.
or hits of acid?
Asides from more traditional creationists (the ones who believe the 6000 year old earth theorem) are referred to more as fundamentalists. However, I'm not sure of the stance of protestant faiths, but the Vatican declared that it is acceptable for a Catholic to believe in the Big Bang Theory, as long as they accept that the Hand of God was behind it - a theory called 'Intelligent Design.' So it is entirely possible to be a creationist without being a 'luddite who attends church.'
I mistyped - FIRST is open to ALL high school students, not just seniors.
This is slightly off topic, but there's another great way for high school seniors to get involved in robotics. The program is called F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). It is an international competition made of over 700 teams at the last count I saw that build a robot - based on the rules of that years game. Student interact and work daily with mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers. I myself worked with engineers from Ford Motor Company, Visteon, and FANUC Robotics. It's an excellent opportunity. Go to www.usfirst.org, and find a high school near you - they can get you into their team, or some may help you start a team at your school. And there are a relativly infinite number of slots. Again, I know this is a little off topic, but it provides alot more of an opportunity than 60 highly demanded slots at NASA.